Heading into the first weekend of a triple header, we have the United States Grand Prix. The Circuit of the Americas (COTA) track has both long straights and sharp turns. It provides the best of both worlds with 20 turns and two DRS zones. Every team will be looking to optimize this power track for the most points heading into the final six races. With wanting to catch up, Red Bull will be bringing new upgrades.
The United States Grand Prix isn’t one race but two. This race weekend we will see both a sprint and a feature race. On Friday teams will get their first practice session. The second session, however, is being replaced by the sprint qualifying session with the third practice being removed for the actual sprint. The feature race will still be held as normal, on Sunday.
Red Bull’s history at the United States Grand Prix
For the last three years, Red Bull has had wonderful runs at the United States GP. Max Verstappen has won three times in a row, making him and Lewis Hamilton the only drivers to have consecutive wins at COTA. Having occupied the top step several times, Red Bull knows it’s possible for this to be their comeback track. But is it possible?
Three Sprints, three Sprint wins so far in 2024 👏#F1Sprint || #USGP 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ywVx8EoA30
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) October 15, 2024
Since the beginning of the season, we have seen Red Bull’s second driver, Sergio Perez struggle with his car. After months of issues, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner finally admitted something was wrong.
Now, Red Bull is rushing to fix the car and maintain Verstappen’s World Drivers’ Championship lead. At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Verstappen struggled. With COTA having a similar layout to both Azerbaijan and Silverstone, could we see a struggle here this season?
Sergio Perez is not optimistic about Red Bull upgrades at Austin
As the United States GP is both a sprint and feature race, teams have less time to get the cars together. This particular race layout is going to hit Red Bull hard. With only one practice session, they will not have any time to adjust their upgrades. If something is wrong with the car, it could ruin Verstappen’s chances at retaining his WDC lead.
When asked about his future at Red Bull Verstappen said that he “has enough to worry about with other things we want to do better” (Motorsport).
⚠️ | Christian Horner on the origins of Red Bull’s Struggles:
“We have traced the development history back and it turned out that the first mistake already happened to us with an underbody upgrade in Barcelona in 2023. That was also the Grand Prix, from which Checo got his… pic.twitter.com/toDlaWj0lE
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) September 16, 2024
With Red Bull bringing upgrades to a sprint race, Perez is expecting there to be a struggle. “It being a Sprint race makes things a little tricky, because we have one practice session to get the car right before it counts but that’s where working as a Team comes in and that’s what we excel at.” (AS).
With Perez previously being vocal about his issues, he has every right to be sceptical about these upgrades. Do you think Red Bull will be able to pull them off?
